That's not an important point for me. It's worth it to me to go to efforts to minimize the amount of surveillance being foisted on me where I can, even if there is other surveillance I can't avoid. Especially when that surveillance is connected to databases.
Every little bit helps, so I maintain every little bit of my privacy and autonomy that I can. Airports and flying are places and activities that are notorious for getting you spied on, so I avoid them whenever possible.
I understand that you, and others, are not quite so sensitive about these issues. There's nothing wrong with that. We all make our own choices.
What surveillance are you trying to avoid? Once you buy your ticket, the government already knows where you are going as does your credit card company. The airline sends the exact ticket information to the credit card company.
If you use your credit card to buy purchases when you drive everywhere, it’s easy to model where you are going.
Even if you use cash, if you take your cellphone with you, the mobile carrier keeps a fairly accurate record of where you are based.
It’s not about “sensitivity”, there are a million ways you are being tracked everywhere, avoiding airports means nothing
> What surveillance are you trying to avoid?
As I said, as much as I possibly can.
> there are a million ways you are being tracked everywhere, avoiding airports means nothing
I disagree. It may not mean much, but it means something. Particularly in combination with avoiding a lot of other "meaningless" privacy intrusions.
You may not feel that avoiding being spied on is a worthwhile activity anymore. That's fair. It's worthwhile for me. I may not be able to do much to avoid this kind of oppression, but I'm not willing to just roll over and take it, either.
How I feel about it is irrelevant. You’re preventing absolutely nothing by refusing to go into an airport when there are much better ways that the government can track you - including your cell phone and credit card usage. It means nothing that you are avoiding airports.
It not only doesn’t “mean much”. It means nothing.
You assume everyone is driving around constantly with a common mobile phone and credit cards, but that is not the case.
97% of adults between 18-49 in the US have a cell phone.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/489255/percentage-of-us-...
94% of payments in the US are made with a debit or credit card
https://www.atlantafed.org/blogs/take-on-payments/2024/11/18...
That doesn’t address much of what was mentioned. Lots of off grid people in this town don’t do all three. Am not offgrid but don’t do them either.
You’re in the wrong place trying to appeal to the defeatism of regular folks.
We disagree. That's OK.
If nothing else, though, it means something to me: it means avoiding a place than I am incredibly uncomfortable being in, and I'm not rewarding systems and behaviors that I think are harmful. That's a win all by itself.